Students
in the College-Prep Curriculum
A growing number of students are choosing the college-prep curriculum. In 1972, about 63 percent of high school seniors said they intended to attend a four-year college; in 1992, that number rose to about 80 percent (National Center for Education Statistics, 1993b). Yet the college-prep curriculum has not been modified to accommodate this increasing enrollment.Gray, Wang, and Malizia (1995) note:
"The college-prep program of study was never designed to educate the majority of all high school students; it was created for the academically blessed, specifically those who had both the aspirations and the ability to be competitive in the college admissions process and academically successful in college. But now the percentage of students (including those from the academic middle) who take the college-prep curriculum has increased dramatically, while the curriculum and instructional modalities remain about the same."
Unfortunately, many students in the college-prep curriculum are only moderately successful in high school and do not master the academic skills necessary for college. Almost a third of freshmen entering college felt they would need to take remedial courses in math (American Council on Education, 1994). Only 20 percent of the faculty in higher education institutions indicated that freshmen had adequate writing skills, and only 15 percent indicated that freshmen were adequately prepared in mathematics ("The Academic Perspective," June 22, 1994). Many of these students drop out of college after the first year without any marketable skills and often with debt incurred while attending.
Also, schools that emphasize academics often neglect real-world vocational applications. "Even as the high school has become increasingly crucial to occupational futures, most students regard it as an 'academic' exercise" (Grubb, 1992, p. 36). Students who do not have a general career focus in high school may go on to college and change their course of study many times before deciding on a career field.
To meet the needs of all students in the college track, Gray, Wang, and Malizia (1995) propose that the college-prep curriculum should be integrated with vocational education:
"One alternative, therefore, is to redesign the college-prep curriculum to accommodate the growing academic spectrum of students who are enrolling. This redesigned curriculum should be an integrated program of focused academics taught in contextual modalities and a re-engineered vocational education designed to prepare students for success in two-year postsecondary technical education."
For further information, refer to the following sources:
